From LA we headed to San Diego, one of the places we were most excited about visiting in the US.

The drive took almost 3 hours in the end due to volume of traffic on the road and it was hot. We arrived at the Hyatt Manchester early afternoon and were greeted by Valets wearing Hawaiian shirts who ripped us off again in parking-36 dollars a night!! We subsequently found out we could self park in the same car park for 10 dollars less so we did that for the remaining days.

This hotel was huge, well over 1000 rooms. We were on the 11th of 40 floors and had a great view over the harbour and main swimming pool.

We visited the Gas lamp district on a couple of occasions whilst we were there as there were a few good restaurants including an excellent Indian and Italian place. We were asked for ID twice. Apparently Californian police frequently raid the bars looking for underage drinkers though we were clearly old enough! Anyway, it added to the amusement of the whole thing.

Whilst in SD we visited the zoo and Balboa park. It took us over an hour to walk there but it was worth it. The zoo was fantastic and specialised in endangered species. The enclosures were all large and filled with plenty to entertain the animals. Compared to London zoo it was a huge place. They also had a sky rail which was fun and provided great views over the park and the city below.

After this we wandered around the park which is full of interesting buildings, museums and Spanish architecture. It was a lovely sunny day so was great for this sort of thing. We eventually found the Globe theatre which had a nice sunny bar and we enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine whilst people watching.

The next day was spent at the pool and then the gym which was nice.

Our last day in San Diego was interesting. We had decided to take a trip to the Old town so we could visit the historical centre. We arrived quite early and many of the buildings were closed but we had a look around the old town Synagogue first. This didn't take long as it was very small. We then walked around the village looking at the various old, restored buildings. We visited the old cemetery which was fascinating.9 This was situated next to Whalley house, which has been certified as haunted. We didn't go inside as a large school trip had just signed up for a guided tour so we decided to have a look around the Mormon battalion building instead.

This was a lovely building again, quite Spanish looking from the outside with arches, fountains and a colourful courtyard. We had intended to simply wander around on our own but we were soon persuaded to join the guided tour. There were only the 2 of us on the tour as it was still fairly early in the morning.

We were taken around by the lovely Sister Woodbury dressed in traditional Mormon costume of the 1800's. She explained that she was working at the building as a Missionary for 12 months. It turned out that one of her ancestors was Welsh which was an interesting connection. She was very keen to learn about our trip.

The tour took us through the property and the story of the Mormon migration from the mid West to the West coast of California. They has been asked to form a battalion and to march to the coast on condition that volunteers families would be provided for. It was actually pretty interesting. Along the way a number of the men died but amazingly they never had to fight.

During the tour Stephen dressed up in traditional dress including bayonet and we got the opportunity to play the spoons! Not at all what I was expecting!!

After all this culture we stopped for coffee and then had a wander around some of the shops before heading back to the hotel for a few hours by the pool.

We enjoyed San Diego and I would definitely go back as there is still so much more to see there.